Watching an analysis of how Putin treats his adversaries, I thought of all the victims of the violent political events of recent centuries. All of the people who have used soft power and non-violence and were murdered. We the people need to make a statement to our leaders that makes it clear that we will not be intimidated. If you want to be a patriot, stand with me in defense of the innocent and the true heros who defend the U.S. Constitution and what it stands for. The First Amendment is first because it is the most important power of the people against oppression, and when it falls the Second Amendment will not help you. In fact, those most enthusiastic about the Second Amendment do not defend the First Amendment or any right for anyone except for as it applies to them. 

I address our current leaders only to say that you need to either join this movement and help to lead it or be replaced. We will take back the power of the ballot, and put in the leaders of the non-violent peer produced space for democracy and governance that we will produce. The open source software advocates have led the way, and Robert David Steele sums it up with clarity and purpose in his recent "Open Source Everthing" where he makes it feel inevitable. It isn't because those who hold the reigns of power are not exiting the stage gracefully.

There are a few quibbles that I might make, the important one being about the one percent who hold the power in our world which is dominated by money power. I say we include them in the 100% of humanity who want the best outcomes for all of us. Take it as sickness or damage that we may be able to heal when some of us become alienated and act out. The current system is practically designed to create alienation, and it certainly doesn't seem like the creation of an immanent intelligence. As we see in the natural world, knowledge and wisdom accumulate over generations in genetics, behavior and linguistic histories. The idiosyncratic path of history selects knowledge in bits and pieces and catastrophic events demand adaptability from all knowledge accumulating structures. We might call this wisdom as long as we don't stop with one kind of wisdom.